Reflection on Superheroes

I would definitely have to say Wonder Woman. Batman and Superman are the two superheroes that everyone knows about. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know them and their origin stories. I had absolutely no idea about anything that had to do with Wonder Woman and I was really intrigued by her origin story. The influence of the Greeks on the creators of Wonder Woman are part of what inspired my superhero alter-ego for my portfolio. I feel like I could hold a conversation with a superhero enthusiast now, about Wonder Woman's powers, her origin story, and what she stands for.

I think my views on Batman changed a little. I've always considered him my favorite superhero, but I never realized how much of a dark side there really is to him. I knew that he had a dark past and that his life had been hard and scarred him to the point of him prowling the streets of Gotham looking for crime, but I never knew how much of a twisted approach some comic authors took to his story. It was slightly surprising, but it didn't really change my opinion of him. He's still a total badass.

After reading the short story about Moisture Man, it really solidified for me how I see myself. I would never give up something I believe to be right, just to become better at something I'm not meant to be good at. I firmly believe that there are some things certain people just aren't meant for. I took ballet forever growing up and only stopped my freshman year of high school. I enjoyed it and I wasn't terrible, but I was obviously not cut out to be a ballerina. As much as I enjoyed ballet though, I would never trade in another quality of myself to be the perfect dancer. There are other aspects of my personality and things I'm good at that make me happy to be me. Moisture Man was not happy with himself and was willing to trade anything, at any cost to make himself a better superhero. He made the wrong choice. He should have been content with himself and the fact that he was a reasonably good person. That should be enough.

I was really intrigued by our discussions of the representation of women in comics and we spent a good deal of time on that, so I think I was happy with that. Comics just remind me a lot of movie stars. Graphic novels portray men and women with impossible bodies and people idolize celebrities for their unattainable muscles and fitness. We spent two, maybe even three (I can't remember anymore, my brain is mush) days on The Watchmen, but I would have been content to discuss them for half the semester. The novel just had so much going on and there were so many themes that we could have gotten into farther if we had more time.

This class is called Reflections, and it has made me reflect a lot on the person I am and the person I want to be. I think superheroes as a Reflections course topic is the best way to make people reflect on themselves because we've been presented with beings who are godly and supposedly perfect and have compared ourselves to them. Just because I don't have superpowers and I can't fly doesn't mean I can't accomplish as many good things as Superman. I can. As far as the superhero who makes the best citizen, I would have to say Captain America. After learning about him and seeing the movie, he is an all around good person, which is why he is chosen to be Captain America in the first place. He is a model for everyone else and he just happens to have nice muscles and super strength. He always does the right thing and he is perfect example of how Americans expect our soldiers to act. He is a model citizen.